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The Points Guy believes that credit cards can transform lives, helping you leverage everyday spending for cash back or travel experiences that might otherwise be out of reach. That's why we publish a variety of editorial content and card comparisons: to help you find a great card to turn your goals into reality.
Our site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened with our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. While we don't cover all available credit cards, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the analysis of these cards, and our content is not influenced nor subject to review by any credit card company, bank or partner prior to (or after) publication. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
Summer Hull has been covering (and using) travel tips, rewards credit cards and loyalty programs for over a decade. She has flown close to a million miles, often on points and miles and with her family in tow.
Richard Kerr is a veteran naval officer and founder of the Award Travel 101 Facebook community. He’s one of the foremost experts in points and miles strategy, featured in Forbes, US News, Money Magazine, Kiplinger Personal Finance and presented at #SXSW 2017. Richard has visited over 45 countries, lived in England and Japan, and spends his spare time dissecting loyalty program award charts to maximize the value of points and miles. Richard holds a BBA in International Business and has his wife and two small children in tow for his travels as often as possible.
also contributed to this story
May 10, 2025 • 8 min read
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Quick summary
Disney park tickets can be purchased using rewards points from various programs, potentially reducing out-of-pocket costs for your trip.
Ticket prices vary based on factors such as guest age, visit dates, length of stay and park options like Park Hopper.
Redeeming points for Disney tickets rarely yields the highest value compared to other travel redemptions, but it can still help make a Disney vacation more affordable.
Purchasing tickets through third-party sellers or as part of hotel-and-ticket packages may be necessary for charges to qualify as travel and allow points redemption.
What to consider
Disney tickets often do not code as travel purchases when bought directly, so using authorized third-party sellers or bundling with hotels may be required for points redemption.
Longer Disney trips generally lower your per-day ticket cost, maximizing the value of your points or cash.
Some rewards programs offer statement credits or cash-back that can offset Disney ticket expenses, but redemption rates may differ from those for flights or hotels.
What you'll miss from the article
A detailed breakdown of which redemption strategies and booking methods can help you stretch your points further for Disney park tickets.
Generated by AI with support from our editorial team.
Comments
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
With so many rides, hotels and Mickey-shaped snacks to choose from, if you ask 10 people about their favorite thing to experience at a Disney park, you'd likely get 10 different answers. But there is one thing every Disney visitor can agree on — the cost of a Disney vacation can come with a bit of sticker shock.
There are ways to do Disney on a budget, and Disney regularly offers deals on Disney dining, tickets and lodging; however, you can save even more by using credit card points to purchase Disney tickets.
Whether you’re going to Disneyland or Disney World, here’s a look at all the different ways you can use points to cover your Disney park tickets to make your next family vacation more affordable.
Disney ticket costs
Several factors affect the cost of a Disney ticket and, therefore, the number of points you’ll need to use. These include guest age (kids under 3 are free, but at 10, you’re considered an “adult”), the dates and length of your visit, which park(s) you want to visit, and whether you want to visit multiple parks per day with a Park Hopper ticket.
However, one consistent aspect of Disney pricing is that the more days you spend in a Disney park during a trip, the less your per-day cost will be. Looking at the value on a per-day basis, it’s clearly in your best interest to fit in as much time at Disney as possible on a single vacation.
DISNEY
Doing so will get you significantly more bang for your points (or dollars) than taking multiple short Disney trips — unless you’re shopping for a Disney annual pass (which isn’t a bad strategy if you plan to visit multiple times a year). Single-day, one-park Disney World tickets range from $119 to $199. However, your per-day cost on a longer Disney trip of up to 10 days can start as low as $63 at certain times of the year.
You can visit multiple parks per day by adding the Park Hopper option to your tickets. This brings the starting price of a one-day adult Disney World ticket to $197 (plus tax), so you’re looking at a real chunk of change ... or points.
How to redeem points for Disney tickets
Spaceship Earth at Epcot. SUMMER HULL/THE POINTS GUY
If you’re looking for a magical way to get outsize value when using your points for Disney tickets (as you might when redeeming airline miles for a first-class ticket), we have some bad news: It’s generally impossible to get a lucrative return when redeeming points for Disney tickets.
That said, the best use for your points is the one that makes you happy. If Disney is your happy place, your points can unlock the gates to spending less out-of-pocket for your visit.
Redeem Chase points for Disney tickets
Three-day and longer Walt Disney World tickets can occasionally be found in the Chase Travel℠ portal. We spotted them in 2024, though they’ve since not-so-magically disappeared from the Chase site as of this update.
Even when Disney tickets aren't available via Chase Travel, you can put the Chase Sapphire Reserve's $300 annual travel credit toward Disney tickets as long as the charge codes as "travel" on your billing statement.
Since Disney tickets normally register as "entertainment" and not "travel," consider buying your tickets from a certified third-party seller like Undercover Tourist. Hotel-and-ticket vacation packages booked directly with Disney or an authorized Disney travel planner should also code as travel.
Redeem Capital One miles for Disney tickets
Big Thunder Mountain at Magic Kingdom. TARAH CHIEFFI/THE POINTS GUY
As is the case with Chase, the catch with this redemption method is that Disney tickets purchased directly from Disney don’t typically code as a travel charge if purchased on their own. Your best bet is to purchase your admission from a third-party site like Undercover Tourist. If you are purchasing a hotel-and-ticket vacation package, do so directly from Disney or through an authorized Disney vacation planner like Mouse Counselors. This way, the charge should code as travel and you can redeem miles to offset the charge.
For example, if you apply for the Capital One Venture Rewards card and use it to buy your tickets with a method that labels your purchase as a travel charge, you could use the 75,000-mile welcome bonus that you can earn after spending $4,000 on the card in the first three months of having the card as $750 toward a Disney trip. New cardholders will also receive a $300 credit to use on hotel and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel in the first cardholder year, so it may be worth booking a hotel through Capital One, too.
Redeem Bank of America points for Disney tickets
With some of the other credit card programs, the best you can do is earn cash-back rewards that could be used to offset the cost of Disney tickets — or anything else, for that matter.
For example, BofA Rewards™ points, which can be earned from the Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card, are worth 1 cent each. This card awards up to 2.625 points per dollar spent on nonbonus transactions and 3.5 points per dollar spent on travel and dining purchases if you’ve unlocked the Premier tier of the BofA Rewards program (which is based on the total amount of assets you have deposited with Bank of America and/or Merrill accounts).
If you are in that preferred earnings tier, it’s just about the most rewarding cash-back card on the market.
The welcome bonus is now 60,000 points after $4,000 spent in the first 90 days from account opening. That has an equivalent value of $600 that you could use to give yourself a statement credit, essentially offsetting the cost of the Disney tickets charged to that card.
Using the Disney Visa cards for Disney tickets
There are technically two versions of the Disney Visa. The cards come with some cool perks and discounts, but they aren’t the absolute best options for maximizing your ongoing spending to earn a future Disney vacation.
The no-annual-fee Disney® Visa® Card (see ) earns a simple 1% back on all card purchases in the form of Disney Rewards Dollars you can use at Disney.
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Then there’s the Disney® Premier Visa® Card, (see) which has a $49 annual fee. It earns 5% back on card purchases made directly at DisneyPlus.com, Hulu.com and Stream.ESPN.com; 2% back on purchases at gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants and most domestic Disney locations in the U.S.; and 1% back everywhere else.
In both cases, the Disney Rewards Dollars you earn can be used toward expenses at the Disney parks, on a Disney cruise or on other Disney-related purchases. This means that it's not a bad option if you want a simple way to rack up rewards for a Disney trip, especially if you lock in the current sign-up bonus.
Bottom line
Mathematically, there are more lucrative applications for reward points than Disney ticket purchases, but the best use of points is always the one that makes your travel dreams come true. So, if Disney is what you want for a future trip, you can make that dream come true with points.
